Axes of Evil

This is just a funny aside....

Eugene has been chopping wood because we've had a downed tree in front of our house for awhile. Yesterday, he said that he'd like to get a wood maul because it would make splitting big logs easier. For all of you city dwellers (and people like me who have always lived in the woods but for some reason have never heard of a wood maul), a wood maul is like an axe, but specially designed for, of course, splitting and chopping wood.

Demonstrating, my sometimes macabre sense of humor, I said, "If we get a wood maul, you wouldn't kill me with it, would you?" I expected him to say something along the lines of "Don't be stupid. I would never hurt you." Or maybe that he would have just acted annoyed at such a stupid question. Instead, he said in a "don't be silly" voice, "Babe, I've already got like five axes."

Buy a house for $50 (seriously!)

So I'm at work today, and somebody is telling me how this guy in Edgwater (south of Annapolis) couldn't get his house to sell, so he's raffling it off with tickets that run $50 each. The website claims the house is worth around $1 million, although who knows what that means in this housing market. Part of the money will go to a charity, and the leftover I suppose goes back to the guy running the show.

It is a true "luxury" home - 6 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 2 kitches... plus (if I'm reading the map correctly) fairly close to the Severn River...

$50? Hey, why not.

Sailors and their ships

When I started this blog, I promised myself I wouldn’t delve into the so-called “mil-blogosphere”… and I’m not about to start.

However – I will share this Navy press release. As a former boarding officer who inspected 60+ ships in the Persian Gulf a few years ago, I congratulate this team for a job well done. And as a San Antonio plankowner – I am happy to see her finally getting some good press. This ship and her sisters have lots of potential - and I'm proud to have served aboard her.

You can read more about San Antonio and Combined Task Force 151 here.

Never retreat, Never Surrender!

MIA

So in my last post – over a month ago – I talked about how I was slacking off in the posts… and then I let it slide again. So, what’s new? Well… I finally started my new job. The commute is a bit longer, but the work is definitely much more interesting and rewarding. Then of course there were the holidays, and reserve duty… Finally, as Leah mentioned, we declared war on the disaster our house has become. This literally has consumed every free second I have had over the last few weeks. Then there was more work… and yesterday Leah and I made the trek into DC for the inauguration (more to come later). Oh yeah, and we put in a closet (also more to come).

The previous owners, in addition to having 9 cats and seemingly using about 100 nails for every square foot of molding in the house, were kind enough to leave this huge pile of wood in the crawl space adjacent to our basement. Apparently, the pile started when the house was built (over 30 years ago) and has grown with subsequent home improvement projects. We finally decided last weekend that for various reasons it had to go.

One problem of doing any kind of renovation is dealing with the debris… either the stuff you are taking out, or the stuff that’s left over (or that you messed up on). Twice now we have just accumulated so much junk from demolishing things (original tile floor, old bathtub, toilets, etc) it’s too much to 1: either put out on the street, or 2: haul to the county dump. In case you didn’t know, Anne Arundel county has some very nice public dumps you can bring just about anything to. However, in this case, we decided to rent a dumpster. For those in the Anne Arundel/Prince George’s County area, the best deal I have been able to find for dumpsters is at Hatfields. $250 for a 10 yd dumpster for 7 days – not a bad deal, especially when you compare it to Home Depot.

It's finally gone!

Disorganization is expensive!!!

Eugene and I formally declared war on our house. We've been living here for almost two years now, and still hadn't unpacked a bunch of boxes until this past weekend. Our garage was full of boxes, and the basement was getting out of hand. We also have an office on the first floor, which we had gotten into the bad habit of using as a repository for random stuff that we didn't feel like dealing with.

The lesson from all of this? Disorganization will cost you! Over the past year or so, we'd been buying random household goods, and in unpacking and organizing, I realized that we already had a bunch of the stuff that we went out and bought. I would catalogue all of the ways that we could have saved by being organized and simply knowing where the heck all of our junk is. I've found that the same thing applies at my office. I'll print a document, which then gets buried under a pile on my desk, so that when I look for it, I can't find it and then re-print only to discover later on that I've printed the same document 20 times. Bad Leah, Bad Leah!

So, the next time you are tempted to let yourself become disorganized, remember that it will cost you!

More Trials and Travails

I've been running sporadically lately.

I ran two weekends ago over the weekend with Eugene, both on Saturday and Sunday. I was running at a pretty good clip during the Saturday run, but felt it the next day, so was a bit slower. However, I was feeling better toward the end of the run. I think that it takes me one or two miles before I really start to feel good.

This past week, I ran once during work with EK. (Eugene is annoyed that I keep using peoples' initials instead of posting their full names. I think that I'll continue to use initials just to annoy him :)) She's a fast runner. She came in at an 8:45 pace during her last race, but still runs with me. I hate to admit it, but she's 47 and has had three kids, so she's got some years on me, but still manages to run faster. Someone told me that a lot of women peak in their running in their 30s and 40s. Maybe it's true given the 38-year old winner of the Olympic marathon. At any rate, no more than a year ago, she was like me, averaging about a 10:30 pace in a 10-miler. Her secret to getting so speedy? A week of hiking over summer vacation. If only it were that easy for me.... Nonetheless, we ran together at a nice slow pace, since she had taken off a few weeks. Sadly, it was still hard for me. I had taken off awhile due to injury and illness and hadn't run in in a good week. I almost didn't want to run with her because I wasn't sure if I could sustain running at a fast enough pace, but she was cool about it.

I didn't run again until Christmas day because it was ridiculously cold (10 degrees with even worse windchill), and I don't have good cold weather running gear. Apparently, athletic apparel companies don't seem to think that short people need running pants.

That's right. I said Christmas day. I'm hardcore! Not harcore enough, though, because I think that I developed shin splints somewhere along the way, so my legs were hurting after. Any tips for getting rid of them?

On an Unrelated Note

So far, the blog has been limited to running and our home improvement projects. I already have a food blog and could start yet another blog to talk about things that aren't food, running, or house related, but that would be way to much work. What is unrelated to those categories? Music.

I have varied tastes and appreciate all types of music if it's good. I'm not one of the categorical "no rap" or "no country" types of folk. Also, while I appreciate music that's not mainstream radio stuff, I appreciate catchy music as much as the next person.

At any rate, that sneaky Target has a display of CDs near the checkout. Whenever Eugene and I go shopping, I'm mean and make him stand in the line while I look at the tabloids. Yes, I am Leah, and I am a celebrity news junky. Since we were at the store recently, I had already looked at all of the tabloids that I wanted to look at and decided to check out the handy dandy CD display instead. On a whim, I decided to buy the new Beyonce CD. Bad Leah! Bad Leah!!! And so close to Christmas.... What's strange is that I've never been a huge Beyonce fan. I've always appreciated her vocal talent and think that some of her music is fun, but I've never felt compelled to buy any of her music. I'm not sure what it was that made me want to buy the album. Anyways, I'm glad I decided to buy it. The CD was excellent. It's a two-disc set with 5 to 6 songs on each. One disc is comprised of slow ballads and the other disc is more clubby. I like the ballads the most, but the other disc is good too. The best thing about the album is that all of the songs are listenable. I can't tell you how many times I've bought albums where I like 3 or so songs and the rest are crap.

My only beef with the album is the weird title, "I am .... Sasha Fierce." Apparently, Sasha Fierce is Beyonce's alter ego or something like that. What's up with all of these artists having alter egos... like Garth Brooks and Mariah Carey. Weird, I tell you. And if you're going to have an alter ego, Sasha Fierce??? But, the album is so good that the strange choice in name is trivial. And maybe it's an effective title. Maybe, just maybe, the weird alter ego thing is what got me curious enough to buy the album (that, and it was on sale for cheap).